Exploring The New Jersey Dyslexia Handbook A Guide

Exploring The New Jersey Dyslexia Handbook: A Guide to Early Literacy Development & Reading Struggles Session 4

Assessment Leads to Sound Instructional Decision-Making Screening/Benchmarking Decisions Progress-Monitoring Decisions Diagnostic Decisions Summative/Outcome Decisions

Screening and Progress Monitoring Decisions

Diagnostic/Comprehensive Assessment to Drive Instruction Function: To develop an instructional plan in response to a student’s individual strengths and weaknesses Question: What and how should we teach this student? Data Collection By: Classroom teacher, Reading Specialist, I &RS Case Coordinator, Intervention Specialist, NJTSS team member Evaluation Procedure: A personalized evaluation procedure that will allow the careful and systematic examination of a student’s skills utilizing data from nationally-normed universal screening tools, progress monitoring tools, informal curriculum-based assessments, and formal standardized assessments

Oral Language Skills ● ● Classroom Observations: ○ sentence length in oral communication ○ vocabulary words in verbal expression compared to written expression Picture Vocabulary Measure Oral Vocabulary Measure of Synonyms and Antonyms Listening Comprehension Skills Potential Indicators of Dyslexia ● ● ● Stronger higher-level language skills than low-level language skills, particularly phonological processing Oral language skills superior to written language skills Possible word retrieval deficits

Phonological Awareness ● ● ● Screening: Phoneme Segmentation Informal Assessment: ○ Word Discrimination ○ Rhyme Recognition ○ Rhyme Production ○ Syllable Blending ○ Syllable Segmentation ○ Syllable Deletion ○ Phoneme Recognition ○ Phoneme Blending ○ Phoneme Segmentation ○ Phoneme Deletion Nonword Repetition Task Potential Indicators of Dyslexia ● ● ● Phonological Awareness Weaknesses Phonemic Awareness Weaknesses Phonological Memory Weaknesses

Rapid Naming Skills ● ● Screening: RAN Informal Assessment: ○ Colors ○ Letters ○ Objects ○ Numbers Potential Indicators of Dyslexia ● ● Naming speed deficits Both naming speed and phonological processing deficits are considered a “double deficit”

Word Recognition & Decoding ● ● ● Screening: Letter-Sound Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Oral Reading Fluency (Accuracy Rates) Informal Phonics Surveys & Reading Inventories ○ Real Words ○ Nonsense Words Irregular Word Lists Potential Indicators of Dyslexia ● ● Difficulties with word attack skills and phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) correspondences Accuracy and/or fluency difficulties

Reading Fluency ● ● Screening: Oral Reading Fluency (Accuracy and Automaticity Rates) Informal Reading Inventories & Curriculum-Based Measurements ○ Automaticity ○ Accuracy ○ Measures of Prosody

Reading Comprehension ● ● Informal Reading Inventories ○ Retellings ○ Questions Curriculum-Based Measurements ○ Cloze Tasks ○ Maze Tasks Potential Indicators of Dyslexia Reading comprehension skills are lower than listening comprehension skills

Written Expression & Encoding ● ● Writing Sample Analysis ○ Handwriting ○ Spelling ○ Mechanics ○ Syntax - Sentence Writing ○ Vocabulary ○ Paragraph Writing Informal Spelling Surveys/Inventories Potential Indicators of Dyslexia ● ● Difficulty recalling letters and orthographic patterns Spelling is usually the most severe weakness Writing difficulties, including: ○ Poor handwriting ○ Poor spelling in context ○ Poor sentence structure An OT referral may be warranted

Universal Screening - NJTSS

Child Study Team Referral to Determine Eligibility ● Review all data including universal screening, progress monitoring of the student’s response to tiered interventions, and diagnostic assessments collected to date ● Gather information about birth and family history, medical history, speech and language development, and educational history ● Assess in all areas of suspected disability

Child Study Team Members Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant School Psychologist ALL team members must have a strong base of knowledge about the neurobiology of dyslexia and all aspects of reading acquisition. Social Worker Speech-Language Pathologist

Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultants Have a thorough base of knowledge pertaining to the structure of language, how students learn to read, why some students struggle to learn to read, and what effective instructional practices should be implemented to remediate students’ specific areas of weakness ● Include interpretation and analysis of test results ● Look for patterns in the results that identify the profile of dyslexia

Social Workers Play an important role in supporting families’ needs and identifying key factors which impact a student’s progress ● Identify genetic and family background ● Investigate emotional and environmental factors

Speech-Language Pathologists Play an important role during the evaluation process due to the connection between spoken and written language and the role both play in the development of literacy skills ● Investigate both receptive and expressive language skills in the areas of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics

School Psychologists Understand the progression of literacy development and can identify the phase at which students are functioning ● ● Explain how cognitive testing results relate to reading achievement Provide sound recommendations for educational programming

Cognitive Function ● ● Processing speed and working memory weaknesses may be present IQ is not the best predictor of how easily a student will develop written language skills A specific learning disability may also be determined by utilizing a response to scientifically-based interventions methodology A note about twice exceptional students: information on IQ and a discrepancy between ability and achievement could help in identifying these students

Activity: Understanding the Tools Needed to Assess for Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. (N. J. A. C. 6 A: 14 -1. 3)

Activity: Understanding the Tools Needed to Assess for Dyslexia ● Take an inventory of the evaluation tools you have access to in your district. Ask: What do we have? What do we need? ● Use the following chart to determine which evaluations target the areas needed for a thorough assessment for dyslexia.

Focus of Assessment Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Phonological Memory Rapid Automatic Naming Letter-Sound Identification Word Recognition Fluency (Real Word Reading) Word Recognition Fluency/Decoding (Nonsense Word Reading) Encoding (Spelling) Oral Reading Fluency Oral Vocabulary vs. Written Vocabulary Listening Comprehension vs. Reading Comprehension Phonological Memory Tool Needed

Thank You!